Prāṇāyāma / What It Means

Prāṇāyāma / What It Means

Prāṇāyāma is a combination of two Sanskrit words which are prāṇa and āyāma which combined produces:

prāṇa + āyāma = prāṇāyāma

It is important to understand that praana is not just breath but is the vital energy which fuels the subtle body and which in part also fuels the physical system and motivates the operation of physical air into the physical body which the subtle body is interspaced into.

Āyāma is the regulation, checking and manipulation for yogic purposes of the vital energy.

This vital energy is important because it creates the possibility of moods in the subtle body, in the psychology. Hence if it can be controlled and regulated and especially if it can be changed, then the moods we have would be adjusted or altered.

I am sure you have seen someone in a stinking mood, and then notice that sometime after that same person’s mood was altered for the better, to such an extent that you wonder how that person was in that other undesirable mood. Striking closer to home, which is our concern in yoga, have you ever found yourself to be in a bad mood which was unfounded and which in retrospect made no sense whatsoever.

Thus the question is:

How do these moods descend on the self?

Some say it is due to the assumption of false ego. Whatever that is. However again the issue of a mood taking over the person might be termed as a possession. But still the real question here is if a person can be immune to the influence of these undesirable moods.

Is it possible to do prāṇāyāma vital energy transformation such that lower moods, undesirable perspectives, just do not manifest in a person’s behavior?

It is one thing to consider changing bad moods. Here we are concerned with changing the energy which makes the bad moods possible in the first place. Can that be achieved by a method of prāṇāyāma?